Change Archives - Corcoran Leadership Coaching

Many leaders I’ve encountered have something about his or her behavior or communication that they want to change but are having a hard time doing it. I often draw upon the Immunity to Change method with my clients because it’s the most effective process I know to address someone’s internal barriers to self-improvement. This process is exciting because it makes a difference quickly and was borne out of solid research by a couple of leading lights at Harvard.

Real Change is Hard

If you’ve been newly promoted to a leadership position, you might be realizing that you need to delegate better. Perhaps you’re the CEO and you know that your “large and in charge” communication style is alienating people. Maybe you’re an executive who has been getting feedback in reviews over the past few years that you need to speak up more in meetings with your peers.

If you’re like most of the leaders with whom I work, you’ve made sincere commitments to change: you’ve participated in training programs, invested in books, outlined self-improvement plans, and set accountability measures. Maybe you can get things to shift for a little while, but eventually you return to your habitual ways of relating, working and thinking.

What’s going on here? Is it a lack of willpower? Are you dealing with a fundamental flaw that can’t be changed?

What’s Immunity to Change?

Harvard University Researchers Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey set out to unravel this mystery. They point to a study that found that when doctors tell heart patients that they will die if they don’t change their habits, only one in seven will follow through successfully. If change is elusive for people even when faced with matters of life and death, Kegan and Lahey concluded that desire and motivation alone can’t be enough to change the status quo.

Add Immunity to Change to your library

They became curious about what lies behind each of our habitual behaviors and mindsets. Instead of writing off any particular habit as “bad,” Kegan and Lahey looked to see what good purpose the habit might actually be serving.

If you know that you are facing burnout and really want to be a better delegator, but continue your habit of taking control and doing things yourself, you must have a pretty good reason.

Perhaps you are afraid that things will devolve into chaos. Perhaps you grew up in a world where you were instilled with the belief that delegating work to others makes you lazy. Maybe your identity is wrapped up in being seen as the creative genius who produces great work.

Beliefs and Habits

Kegan and Lahey discovered that behind each of our habits is a strongly held belief that not only keeps us in our groove, but also fights any change that threatens the status quo. This resistance is so strong, so adaptive, and so systemic that Kegan and Lahey liken it to a finely tuned immune system.

How Immunity to Change Works

If I fundamentally believe that my value lies in being an expert, I’m going to be very invested in asserting my views and being right. I’m going to defend my expert status at all costs.

Listening and accepting influence will actually undermine what I consider my core value. I’ll believe that no amount of investment in skill development is going to make me a better listener.

Even a strong desire and motivation to be a better leader can’t compete with the deeply seated belief that my value lies in being an expert. 

We’re dealing with an Immunity to Change that first needs to be unearthed for real and lasting improvement to be possible.

Overcoming Immunity to Change

Kegan and Lahey developed an Immunity to Change methodology that I use with clients both in one-on-one coaching sessions and in group workshops as part of a team or leadership development program. The objective is to pinpoint and address whatever beliefs and assumptions are blocking clients from the changes they want to make.

Creating an Immunity to Change Map is a simple way to bring to light the personal barriers to change. It starts by outlining the client’s commitment to an improvement goal. Then it sketches out the things that he or she is either doing or not doing that prevent progress towards the achievement goal. The Map then identifies competing commitments, as well as the big underlying assumptions behind those competing commitments.

The Value of an Immunity to Change Map

In the Map, what I find is that the client is operating with one foot on the gas pedal—the improvement goal—and the other foot on the brake. Your competing commitments and big assumptions that keep your foot on the brake are typically unconscious. If you don’t map them out, you can’t address them to move forward.

The Immunity to Change Map is powerful; completing one Map typically not only provides helpful insights but can often dismantle assumptions that are holding you back.

After the Map, there are as many as nine different steps in the methodology to help overturn the assumptions. Typically this takes place over the course of a six-month coaching engagement. I may not use all nine steps, but I customize the approach based on the individual and goal.

When Immunity to Change is Most Useful

The Immunity to Change process is most useful for the thornier and more difficult self-improvement goals. Perhaps your role requirements or business context have changed and “what got you here can’t get you there.” Or perhaps the same issue keeps showing up on your performance reviews and you haven’t been able to crack it.

Common leadership improvement goals that the Immunity to Change process addresses include:

Delegation
Communication (speaking clearly/succinctly)
Engaging in conflict constructively
Speaking up with peers or executives
Listening
Prioritizing and creating focus
Building trust and relationships
Developing others
Work/life balance
Collaboration

Start Here with Immunity to Change

The place to start is defining a good improvement goal. It should be focused and important. What’s the one thing you could change that would have a significant impact on your performance? It also has to be really motivating. The truth is that the Immunity to Change process is going to take you out of your safety zone a bit, so you need to believe that the result will be worthwhile.

While the Immunity to Change method is effective and fast, it’s difficult to do this work on your own. We can’t see our own blind spots and so much of what drives an individual’s Immunity to Change is unconscious and hidden beliefs.

Do you have an Immunity to Change?

As someone who has gone through the process myself and as a coach who uses it with my clients, my best advice is to order the Immunity to Change book and engage a certified Immunity to Change coach.

Here are a few more helpful resources:

And if you’d like to take the old school route, just give me a call at 415.991.5177. Looking forward to hearing from you.

Executive Coaching develops the ability of leaders to make a greater impact in their organizations. I determine a coaching program’s focus by what the leader and the people they work with believe will make the biggest, most positive difference.

Success in any coaching engagement depends on two things: the capacity of an executive to influence the system within which he or she works; and the potential for that system to be influenced.

A systemic approach to change.

Coaching often places too much emphasis on the first part of this equation, the executive. My systems approach to coaching considers both elements, and I assume that all parts of the organization contribute to an individual’s success within it. In this approach, I work with the executive to create a development plan that addresses questions that pertain to the system:

Do relationships need to be improved? What can the executive do to improve his relationships, and what help is required from others
Is a new organizational structure needed? How can the executive influence such change, and what support is needed from the organization to effect this change?
Do the executive’s team members need to develop new skills? How can she assist them, and what other help might she need?
What are the incentives for change? How does the executive view change, and how does the organization reward change—through promotion, bonuses, etc.?

I consider these to be systemic issues because I understand that multiple factors aside from the executive’s own motivation and skill contribute to his ability to drive business and get results.

I know that lasting change occurs only when the executive and the organization work together to achieve the desired outcome. Ted’s situation illustrated below, demonstrates how this approach can work.*

When the exec and the org work together, things change.

Ted was an effective executive with a long history at a successful organization. He was responsible for teams on the East and West Coasts, and he brought to his work a deep knowledge base, strong technical skills, and motivation to develop as a leader. The new president of the organization had confidence in Ted, and he wanted to invest in building Ted’s leadership and management skills. He also wanted to make changes in the business in response to shifting client needs and expectations, and he needed Ted to grow in some areas to make this happen.

In a 360° feedback session, I identified Ted’s communication style and the management of his direct reports, particularly on the East Coast, as the main areas of focus for the coaching program. But I also recognized that the organization needed to work with him to effect lasting change. It wasn’t just Ted’s skills that needed attention. The organization needed to make some structural changes that would facilitate communication between Ted and his direct reports. Both Ted and his organization needed to influence change for performance to improve.

For Ted’s part, he influenced change by improving his communication and coaching skills: he gave his direct reports more positive feedback, addressed performance issues quickly, and held them more accountable to their commitments. He also experimented with technology—webcams and Googlechat—to be in more frequent contact with his East Coast team, so that he could spend more time mentoring and coaching.

The president of the company influenced change when he clarified the roles and responsibilities within reporting relationships. He also eliminated a redundant management role on the East Coast that had hampered communication, and he supported Ted’s decision to spend more time in the East Coast office, where he could have more in-person contact with his team. Ted’s direct reports also participated in the change effort as a result of their willingness to discuss their performance with Ted and to work with him to improve.

At the end of six months, the results were clear. Ted felt much more effective in communicating with and managing his direct reports, and their performances had improved. With greater openness and collaboration among the team members, and between the East and West Coast offices, Ted was able to bring their work to a higher level.

The president of the company recognized that Ted was now operating at a new level himself and started to involve him in more strategic projects external to the organization.

Change done right

Ted’s case is a good example of how my systems approach to coaching works. Ted’s situation improved because he was willing to examine his practices and influence change and because his organization was willing to make changes of its own.

*Names and some details have been changed.

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